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what do you think is the best make of bird food you have bought?

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  • KezzaKezza Posts: 90

    I buy the CJ wild bird seed, no mess varietyimage.  I pay around 18 quid at my local pet store.   The only mess makers I find are actually the coal tits.  I've watched them constantly spitting out every single thing til they find what they wantimage, a sunflower seed I presume, so have started buying sunflower hearts separately now.  The chaffinches and collared doves I get do do a good job of clearing up the spat out bits thoughimage.  I get a small bag of sunflower hearts for a quid at the local pound store, along with 100g bag of dried mealworms.  The mealworms are far cheaper this way, and also fat balls / cakes.  A pack of 8 balls for a quid, or 3 fat cakes for 75p.  Feeding birds can be expensive so I try to save money where I can, but as Lyn above says, once you start you can't stop, and I also enjoy watching the birds feeding.  The other product I get is Nyger seeds.  I tend to buy these from Pet-Supermarket.com as it's the best price I could find, and with free delivery too.  To hear the gold finches squabbling over the Nyger makes me smile, even if I can't always see them from the other side of the garden.  I love to know that they're all getting a good feed.  Peanuts I get from the local pet shop too, but they're about 36 quid for a ?12.75 / 20kg bag (I forget the weight).  Peanuts are dear, so I try to scrimp on the amount I put out, but with 2 cheeky red squirrels to feed........image  I also get a small bag of suet pellets (400g) for a quid from the quid shop, total bargain !

  • Alan4711Alan4711 Posts: 1,657

    i purchased some ordinary lard from asda as i couldn't find suet  then i simply mixed it with pound shop wild bird  seed into balls  and the birds left the original purchased fat balls  and totaly scoffed the lard ones,it looks like all the birds seem to like them especialy the Starlings they love them But i think i might have a problem in summer as they will probaly melt a bit ,need to get them more solid,How im not sure,and ideas

    Alan

  • KoalagirlKoalagirl Posts: 225

    Definitely CJ Wildbird food.  I get two sacks of shelled sunflower seeds delivered twice a year.  No delivery charge and a discount for buying in bulk.  I tried buying other food, but the birds only ever eat the sunflower seeds and toss everything else out onto the lawn.

  • KezzaKezza Posts: 90

    Hi Alan4711

     

    How about grinding up some peanuts til it's near powder to mix with your fat cakes ?  I used to make fat cakes years ago, but found the same problem, that they melt in the summer (I didn't follow my own tip above though, so it may work).  I'm lazy nowadays, and buy fat balls and cakes as I can get them so cheaply in the quid shops.  Hope the above tip is worth a go though.image  Or maybe porridge oats, something dry to stabilise the fat content.

  • You are right flowering rose, the large bags of bird seed in Tesco are good and do not have a lot of wheat and corn which gets wasted. I found that Morrisons bird feed has too much wheat etc. In the summer Tesco reduced the big bags by 50p and I stocked up! So do keep a look out this year. I find the pet stores rather expensive. No wonder it is a multi million pound business!

    Morrisons peanuts are good value I found, compared to the others.I found, though cheap, quid stores' fat balls have more SAND than fat!

    Alan, I make fat balls with lard (it's going up by leaps and bounds, I noticed...went up from 39p to 45p in 3 days!! It's 49p in Tesco, what a ripoff)

    I mix value oats with bird seed,sunflower seeds and peanuts to make the fat balls.The oats seem to bind the mixture together. Where do you live Alan, to get enough heat to melt them.......lucky you.

    When it gets cold, I soak oats with value dried fruit and raisins with leftover cheese,rind, rice and potato and leave it all out on a pot plant saucer. I does not last very long! I find meal worms etc. rather expensive, so hope these little treats help the little darlings make up for the loss of their habitat and foraging countryside.

  • KezzaKezza Posts: 90

    Ooooh, that's interesting jatnikapyar - fat balls full of Sand image????  I haven't found that yet, so will have to keep a look out, though must say that the gorgeous long tail tits that visit me regularly now scoff them down no end, I counted 8 all at once on my fat ball feeder cage on Saturday, they love the fat balls.  I also like the mix of soaked oats, fruit etc that you put out for the birds.  I'll try that this weekend and see what happens.  image

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,441

    I was looking through the cupboards to see what I might offer as extras in this cold weather. There are glace cherries and mixed peel left over from the Crims cake. Would these be bad for them?

     



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • Kathy 2Kathy 2 Posts: 122

    Dripping is harder than lard - would that work better? You would need to melt it first, then mix in the goodies. If you have any empty coconut feeders you could put the dripping mix in them. I keep meaning to have a go myself but not yet got round to it.

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    I sometimes wonder where all my bird food goes, here shows a pheasant, a pigeon and a squirrel all scoffing! and of course, they bring their mates.

    image

     

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Alan4711Alan4711 Posts: 1,657

    Now theres some really good ideas for the fat balls im going to try and   i,ll try the lard as well, and Lyn thats a cracking picture  imagecheers all

    Alan4711

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